This invention generally relates to a floating drive on docking system for a watercraft and more particularly to a drive-on docking system for a personal watercraft (PWC) with a pivoting entry to allow for easy loading and unloading.
The use of floating drive-on watercraft lifting devices is well known. A number of floating lift designs are currently known that provide this basic function. Most floating drive-on watercraft lifts are made from rotationally molded plastic and are either filled with air or foam for floatation. These lifting devices commonly have a ramped portion for loading and unloading the watercraft, a cradled docked portion for storing the watercraft and some sort of roller system or raised plastic ridges to help in transporting the watercraft from the ramped portion to the cradled portion and visa versa. A common trait among the current floating drive on watercraft lifting devices is a high loading angle between the watercraft and the lifting device. The abrupt ramped portion of the docking device forces the bow of the entering watercraft up creating the large loading angle between the watercraft and the floating lift requiring a large amount of propulsion from the watercraft to load. For an unskilled watercraft user loading can be very difficult and possibly dangerous. With too much propulsion the watercraft can easily slide over the lift and crash into any items in front of the drive-on lift. Examples of this type of floating drive-on watercraft lifting device are the Hydrohoist Hydroport (U.S. Pat. No. 7,293,522 to Elson), U.S. Pat. No. 6,431,106 to Eva, III et al., and the Jet T by Carolina Water Works, Inc.
Several devices use keel entry rollers to ease in loading the watercraft onto the dock including U.S. Pat. No. 6,006,687 to Hillman, U.S. Pat. No. 7,069,872 to Ostreng et al., and the EZPort from EZ Dock. The keel rollers help with reducing the propulsion required for loading, but marine growth can be a problem with keel rollers. If the keel roller sits in the water, marine growth, such as barnacles, muscles, oysters, etc., builds up on the roller and can damage the hull of a watercraft. Some companies choose to position the keel roller above the waterline to prevent marine growth, but this causes more problematic loading issues. With the keel roller above the waterline, the bow eye of a watercraft can catch on the keel roller while loading causing a significant jolt to the driver of the watercraft, and the loading angle is increased requiring more propulsion to load the watercraft leading to the same loading issues as the Hydrohoist Hydroport and like lifting devices.
The Tilting Dry Dock of U.S. Pat. No. 5,855,180 to Masters tries to address the loading issues of the above devices with a floating dock that seesaws to change the loading angle and reduce the propulsion required to load a watercraft. While the seesaw concept allows for reduced propulsion to load the watercraft, it does not address the growth issues that can damage the hull of a watercraft. Without a watercraft on the seesaw dry dock, the entry of the dry dock sits in the water where growth can build up. Furthermore, with the seesaw design a watercraft can be errantly launched if a person or animal walked to the back of the seesaw.
Another common problem among the current state of the art floating drive-on watercraft lifts is that most of them have a square or flat entry which requires the watercraft to be aligned properly with the entry for the watercraft to be properly loaded. If the watercraft is loaded at an angle the watercraft will slide off the side of the lift and back into the water, again, causing loading problems for the unskilled watercraft user as most PWCs do not steer very well at low speed.
Accordingly, the present invention is designed to allow for safe and effortless loading and launching of the watercraft on a floating drive-on watercraft lift.